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the truth is getting harder to hide

Boycott! A strategy for winning...

Submitted by wildleaf on 8 October 2010 - 3:14pm

This year the Democrats are going to lose but dissident voices can win. We have a new and powerful excuse to boycott the elections, fighting corporate
power, but it has to be organized and an empowered boycott. This is a call against apathy, against the corporate political parties and for an empowered non-voter.

The first American Revolution, in 1776, threw off the yoke of the king
of England. Our fledgling democracy was then limited to white males who
were educated landowners with slave owners apportioned an extra 3/5ths
of a vote per slave. Now every adult has been given the right to vote,
and democracy is part of America's pride. It is that sense of pride in
our democracy that calls for an active boycott of this election.

Without a vote in Congress, or a decree from the President, the
Supreme Court has reinstated the 3/5ths rule and has taken away all our
suffrage. This sweeping change has turned Congress into a king's court
for the kings of corporations. The slaves are us, with a proportion of
each of our vote being given to these greed determined kings. The cause
of this is unlimited corporate spending on elections which effectively
ended democracy in America. The solution is to boycott this election and
boycott all corporations who have crowned themselves during it.

The same 14th Amendment that gave all people born in this country
citizenship and revoked the 3/5ths clause in the Constitution, has been
mistakenly used by the Supreme Court to give corporations the rights of
people. The Citizens United Supreme Court ruling in late 2009 gave
corporations, as formally termed people, the right to spend unlimited
money on elections, as protected free speech. This revoked the McCain
Feingold law and all election reforms. The spirit of the14th amendment
has been revoked, and the slave masters are corporate executives and all
of America is their slave.

Historically the wealthy have always maintained a disproportionate
amount of power in government. This election marks a new precedent where
the one percent who own 83% of the stocks in all corporations now can
wield that control to buy elections outright. In terms of control of
power and ability to wield it, our nation has never experienced power as
concentrated as it currently has become. In the entire history of this
country, our democracy has never been this weak. The world has never
experienced individuals as powerful as the new kings are becoming.

Corporations are not people. They don't love. If, hypothetically,
corporations were people they would be psychopaths. Voting for
candidates who have received all their support from psychopaths from the
day they were born on the political stage until the moment of Election
Day, is not what an informed voter would do. What an informed voter
would do is refuse to vote in an election run by psychopaths and vocally
oppose the results.

Boycotting elections takes away the validity of the election's
results. It is a stand made on a principal that the vast majority of
Americans can understand and agree with. It cuts across a broad spectrum
of issues and unites diverse people around a common cause. It has
potential appeal that can bring progressives and independents equally
into a single issue agreement. It rejects the passivity and despondence
that is created when people realize that they are playing a rigged game
set against their interests. An election boycott is engaging, strident,
effective and emboldening to the people who participate in it. Whereas
unchallenged corporate controlled elections leaves the results valid and
leaves a precedent for all future elections.

A boycott campaign of an election is a reaffirmation of the
importance of democracy and is a defense of our democratic system. It is
a way to engage in a deeper democracy. Boycott becomes your candidate.
Signs, rallies, bumper stickers, advertisements, op-ed, letters to the
editor, canvassing, phone calls, debates and actions of many varieties
are all needed. On Election Day people can write in boycott or send in
blank ballots. The day after Election Day, the boycotters call the
election invalid and push forward a campaign for election reform.

Any candidate that refuses corporate funding and is facing a
mismatched election should join the boycott and drop out of the race.
There is incredible strength in candidates willing to stand up on
principal regarding corporate power.

As a campaign like any other, getting out the vote is crucial for
the boycott to be effective. Boycotters can be registering people to
vote so they do not vote. Boycotters can be advocating a wide variety of
issues in the name of democracy. Boycotters can be grilling candidates
at public forums. Boycotting is not the same as sitting at home in
passivity. It is a vote, a vote of no confidence.